Sunday Evening, Dec 30, 2012
The sun is setting over the Aegean and I'm back in my apartment overlooking the old harbour. Now, about food. Cretan food is a grand experience! Here's a brief introduction to what I'm enjoying. All food is very very fresh. Very little frozen food here! Every season is a growing season so seeds are continually going into the ground and harvest is continually rolling into the city.
I had a vegetarian lunch while you were, no doubt, shovelling again. I feel for you but...
Below are slow roasted potatoes in garlic oil - even potatoes here taste better. Stuffed grape vine leaves on the left with a spicy sour cream sauce. Of course wine and local honey beer served chilled.
Dining is a way of life here. It is slow. It is exquisite. It takes hours to eat. The waiters chat and everyone is friendly. It was a vegetarian lunch today. The salad was the main dish. It was served in a philo bowl that went well with raisins, nuts, cranberries, beets, corn and fresh great tasting tomatoes in a very subtle honey mustard based dressing. Uuuuummmm
Each meal followed by the "Gift of the House". The gift is presented when you try to leave and the waiter will say "stay for just one more thing". It is free. It always comes with raki. For lunch it was raki served with an angel food cake soaked in Cretan honey and served by chocolate covered ice cream. The ice cream, like the yogurt, is better than anything I've ever tasted before.
Raki is a drink everyone makes. After the wine is made, and everyone here makes wine from local grapes, the pomace [pieces of the grape left over the wine making process], are aged in barrels and distilled. Often it is 40-65 proof. It is served cold with fruits and sweets. The taste is hard to describe. Imagine pure alcohol with a little turpentine and you are close. It reminded me of Newfoundland screech the first time I tasted it. Often it is tempered with honey.
In the wee hours- when its time to call it a night, it is time for souvlaki. The street vendors have little store front operations and I went to the busiest one and was not disappointed. Even at 2:30 a.m. the streets are crowded.
So that is a brief introduction to eating in Chania. This is truly a world of different culinary delights. I'm going to have to keep walking if I'm not to come home even more overweight then I am now.
The sun is setting over the Aegean and I'm back in my apartment overlooking the old harbour. Now, about food. Cretan food is a grand experience! Here's a brief introduction to what I'm enjoying. All food is very very fresh. Very little frozen food here! Every season is a growing season so seeds are continually going into the ground and harvest is continually rolling into the city.
I had a vegetarian lunch while you were, no doubt, shovelling again. I feel for you but...
Below are slow roasted potatoes in garlic oil - even potatoes here taste better. Stuffed grape vine leaves on the left with a spicy sour cream sauce. Of course wine and local honey beer served chilled.
Dining is a way of life here. It is slow. It is exquisite. It takes hours to eat. The waiters chat and everyone is friendly. It was a vegetarian lunch today. The salad was the main dish. It was served in a philo bowl that went well with raisins, nuts, cranberries, beets, corn and fresh great tasting tomatoes in a very subtle honey mustard based dressing. Uuuuummmm
Each meal followed by the "Gift of the House". The gift is presented when you try to leave and the waiter will say "stay for just one more thing". It is free. It always comes with raki. For lunch it was raki served with an angel food cake soaked in Cretan honey and served by chocolate covered ice cream. The ice cream, like the yogurt, is better than anything I've ever tasted before.
Raki is a drink everyone makes. After the wine is made, and everyone here makes wine from local grapes, the pomace [pieces of the grape left over the wine making process], are aged in barrels and distilled. Often it is 40-65 proof. It is served cold with fruits and sweets. The taste is hard to describe. Imagine pure alcohol with a little turpentine and you are close. It reminded me of Newfoundland screech the first time I tasted it. Often it is tempered with honey.
In the wee hours- when its time to call it a night, it is time for souvlaki. The street vendors have little store front operations and I went to the busiest one and was not disappointed. Even at 2:30 a.m. the streets are crowded.
These wraps come with the french fries inside the wrap with lettuce, tomato, sauce etc. The bread is full, hot and delcious. The pork is prepared in a most surprising yet practical manner. Marinated pork slices are stacked on a vertical spit a couple of feet high and cooked in a vertical rotisserie. The server shaves the thin layer of cooked pork off using a razor type instrument. The slowly turning meat keeps presenting freshly cooked, hot, juicy meat to the customer. Ingenious! And GOOOODDD.
So that is a brief introduction to eating in Chania. This is truly a world of different culinary delights. I'm going to have to keep walking if I'm not to come home even more overweight then I am now.
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